Article feeding mechanism



Fe! 9, 1932. E. SMITH ET AL ARTICLE FEEDING MECHANISM Filed March 4, 1930 3 Sheets- Sheet 2 I INVENTOR.

m us Z n WN ufiwxm A w 27 5 W M LA mw "M Feb. 9, 1932. E. SMITH ET AL ARTICLE FEEDING MECHANi SM Filed March 4, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVEN TOR. Iii/71a fllaMl/I/E Patented Feb. 9, 1932 UNITED STATES.

PATENT OFFICE.

ELHER L. SMITH, OF LONGMEADOW, PAUL LANGEAMMER AND STEPHEN BODOLAY, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNORS TO PACKAGE MACHINERY CO1:- PANY, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS ARTICLE FEEDING MEOHLAN'ISH Application filed March 4, 1930. Serial No. 433,082.

This invention relates to mechanism for arranging and delivering a plurality of articles, such as pieces of candy coated gum, in stack formation; and for presenting the stack as a unit for treatment by a wrapping or.

packaging machine. Candy coated gum has come to assume a fairly standard form in which the piecesare of rectangular outline with the broad faces convex and the narrow faces rounded so that a cross section through a piece is an oval. Pieces of this shape have given trouble due to their tendency to wedge together in'their feed chutes, the elimination of this trouble being one of the objects of would position themthe wrong way for thev wrapping operation. It is a further object of this invention to reverse the position of the stacked pieces, so that they may be both fed from the hopper and delivered against the v wrapping paper in the. most advantageous" manner. A further object of the invention is to preserve at a minimum the overall height of.the mechanism; this being accomplished by delivering the stacked pieces initially at a lower level than required for the wrapping operation. and then restoring them to the correct level by the device which turns them over to present the correct side to the paper. A

further object is to improve the mechanism for taking the pieces as dumped in a hop er and for arranging them end on in parallel rows. Other objects will appear from the following description and claims.

Referring to the drawings- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the mechanism,

also showing diagrammatically the initially acting members of a wrapping machine in position to receive successive stacks of pieces from the assembling apparatus;

' Fig. 2 is a section. on an enlarged scale,

" taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail of one of the candy coated gum pieces for which the ma- 7 chine is designed;

4 is a side view thereof; Fig. 5 is a sectional plan view of the hopper, on a scale enlarged over that of Fig. 1,-

and taken on the line 5-5 oftha-t figure;

Fig. 6 is a section on line 6-6 of Fig. 5;- Fig. ,7 is a right-hand elevation of the parts shown in Fig. 5 Fig. 8 is a section on line 8-8 of Fig. 9; Fig. 9 is a face view of the slanting portion of the assembling chute;

Fig. 10 is a sectional plan on line 10-10 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 11 is asectional elevation of partsshown in Figs.' 1 and 10, but with certain eleglents in a different position of operation; an

Fig. 12 is an enlarged'sectional detail of arts of the assembling chute shown in 1g. 1. J V I The articles a are initially dumped loosely in a hopper suitably supported by a bracket 21 and a pedestal 22. Within the hopper, and near its bottom portion are pairs of guide bars 23 (Fig. 6) having'mating faces" curved to afford clearance for the articles. Preferablythe bars of each'pair have their nearest approach. to each other near their bottoms so that the articles are supported between them loosely and in'a condition where they can easily be turned over endwise. The bars 23 are held in fixed positions relative to the hopper, as by means of screws 24- (Fig. 7-). Above and between the pairsof bars 23 are a plurality of rocking grate bars, having their 'upper surfaces substantially flat and their lower surfaces cylindrical. These members are pivoted at each .members 25 (Figs. 5 and 6), something like end of the hopper, having at oneend pro- .jecting portions 26 (Fig. 7) to which are secured operating levers 27. All of these levers are ganged together by a connecting link 28; and the lever 27 at one side is joined by a link 29 to a crank 30 formed on the end ofa shaft 31. Bevel gears 32 (Fig. 5) join this shaft with a'stub shaft 33 bearing a sprocket 34. -A chain 35 passes around this sprocket and also around a driving sprocket 36 (Fig. 1). The shaft 31 is by this mechanismdriven continuously durlng the operation of the machine, and causes the members 25' to tilt alternately in opposite directions so as to shake the articles contained within the hopper down into the spaces between the guide bars 23.

Passing around a pulley 38 at one side of the hopper'and around a pulley 39 on the shaft 40 upon which the driving sprocket 36 is mounted is a belt 41 forming a conveyor for the articles which have gravitated between the bars 23. The position of these bars is such that the articles resting on edge will bear against the belt and be carried along by it, the bars serving merely to keep the pieces upright. Nothing so far described is determinative of whether the pieces rest upon their long sides I) or upon their ends a. The passage of the pieces on the belt under those which are being stacked on top of them will to some extent tend to arrange the pieces with their lesser width vertical, but it is preferred to provide mechanism positively turning any pieces which start out of the hopper the wrong way up.

For this purpose a plurality of polygonal disks 42 are mounted upon a shaft 43, one disk extending between each adjacent pair of members 25 substantially to the top of the bars 23. The shaft is j ourna-led in a vertically adjustable guide 44 (Fig. 5) having an adjusting screw 45 and held in adjusted position by a clamp bolt 46 (Fig. 1), so that the exact degree of approach of the disks to the bars 23 can be regulated. The shaft is provided with a sprocket 47 engaging the chain 35 previously referred to. As the disks revolve in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 1 they force back and turn over any pieces which have arrived at this point with their long dimension vertical. As is clearly shown in Figs. 1, 5 and 6, these disks, which may be made of some material such as leather softer than the candies, project into the hopper. As they rotate, the disks agitate the articles in the hopper, causing them to fall 'more readily into the spaces between the grate bars.

The belt 41 rides over a supporting plate 48 for the greater portion of its length, this plate terminating part way across the hop per as shown in Fig. 1. In the gap thus formed is a vibrating plate 49 carried on a v lever 50 journaled at 51 on the bracket 21.

A link 52 joins the lever with one of the operating levers 27 for the members 25, so that as t e members are rocked the plate 49, and consequently the belt, will be vibrated to assist in the proper distributionof the pieces.

As the pieces are moved out of the hopper by the belt the guiding function previously assumed by the bars 23 is taken over by upper and lower plates 53 and 54 separated by spacers 55 (Fig. 2) and held by screws 56 onto bridges 57 extending across the path of travel of the belt. The pieces a are still resting with their long edges on the belt, and as best shown in Fig. 2 are supported only adjacent their upper and lower edges by the plates 53, 54. It has been found by experiment that this method of guiding pieces of the shape shown is effective in preventing them from becoming ammed in the passages.

The plates 53 and 54 have curved portions 58 following the belt as it turns around the pulley 39 and delivering the rows of pieces to a vertical chute section down which the pieces descend by gravity. This. chutesect-ion comprises parallel plates 59 and 60 (Fig. 8) in which are formed grooves 61 serving to guide the pieces by their edges. The plates are held together by screws 62 upon which are mounted spacing collars 63. The chute section is preferably made removable at the option of the machine operator in order to facilitate cleaning and the removal of broken pieces. This result is achieved by the following mechanism. Upon the plate 59 is a bracket 64 (Fig. 1) having a half round opening 65 adapted to embrace a stationary rod 66. A second stationary rod 67, flattened as at 68 (Fig. 12) has a screw 69 held in place by a nut 70. This screw has a double beveled head 71 adapted to coact with the beveled side 72 of a slot 73 formed in a slide 74. A guide block 75 (Fig. 1) supports one end of the slide for reciprocation, having a spring 76 extending to a screw 77 on the slide to give the surface 72 a constant tendency towards the screw 69. A screw 78 (Fig. 12) passes through a slot 79 near the other end of the slide to give additional guiding action and to limit the extent of the slides travel. Upon the plate 60 a handle 80 is mounted, by means of which the vertical chute section may be swung on its pivot 66 and either removed from the machine or replaced in position. This provision is useful in case the chute becomes jammed due to breakage of any of the pieces. As shown in Fig. 9 the chute becomes narrower towards its lower side, the grooves 61 converging to bring the several lines of articles together. Inspection slots 81 are preferably provided, and an extension 82 passes above the curved portion 58 of the horizontal guide plates to insure the smooth entrance of the articles into the vertical section.

As the articles reach the lower end of the guide plates 59, 60 they are received upon a curvedblock 83 (Fig. 11) having an arcuate slot 84. Through this slot passes a plurality of plates 85 dividing the slot into compartments each adapted to receive one of the stacked articles and to preserve them in separated formation until they are forced out of the slots by are shaped fingers 86 carried on an oscillating arm 87 (Fig. 1) fixed on a shaft 88. A second arm 89 on this shaft is joined by a link 90 with a lever 91 pivoted to the frame 92 of the wrapping machine and actuated by a cam rod 93 split to straddle a cam shaft 94 and moved by a suitable cam to cause oscillation of the fingers 86 once during each cycle of the machine. When the fingers are raised, as in Fig. 11, they hold the articles in the chute elevated, permitting the lowermost row to descend only when the fingers have been moved to their limit counterclockwise as in Fig. 1.

A horizontally movable plunger 95 receives the stack of articles from the fingers 86 and moves it as a unit into the wrapping .mechanism, the initial stage of which is indicated at 96. I The plunger is pivoted at 97 to a lever 98 fixed upon a shaft 99; and is also pivoted at 100 to a link 101 pivoted at 102 to the wrapping machine frame. The shaft 99 is oscillated at intervals, as by a cam connection with the shaft 94, and gives to the plunger 95 a periodic article-shifting movement.-

The double pivot arrangement gives .the plunger a straight line movement without the use of slides.

It will be observed that the articles are fed end on down the delivery chute, and are vturned through nearly ninety degrees by the fingers 86. The plunger 95 is thus enabled to feed the articles end on into the wrapping machine, which suits the usual wrapping methods much better than if the articles were merely pushed sideways out of the delivery chute. 4

What we claim is:

1. In a machine for arranging articles in rows, a hopper, a pluralityof spaced oscillating grate bars within the hopper, a plurality of pairs of guide bars, each pair'posltioned below a space between adjacent grate bars, and a belt passing under the guide bars and furnishing support for articles held upright thereby.

2. In a machine for arranging substantially rectangular articles in rows, a hopper, a plurality of spaced oscillating grate bars within the hopper, a plurality of pairs of guide bars, each pair positioned below a space between adjacent grate bars, a belt passing under the guide bars and furnishing support 'for articles held upright thereby, and

a plurality of rotating polygonal disks each of which is aligned with the guiding space between a pair of guide bars to turn onto their long sides any articles which are resting on the belt with their long dimension vertical.

3. In a machine for conveying a plurality of articles having a substantially rectangular cross-section in' one direction and a bulging curved cross-section in a second direction at right angles to the first, a guide chute having guide members spaced apart a less distance than the thickness of the article at its point of widest bulge and positioned to engage the article adjacent opposite rectangular edges only, leaving the thickest portion of the article unsupported. V

4. A machine as claimed in claim 3 in which a moving conveyor belt is positioned below the guide members in such close proximity thereto as to support their weight and prevent substantial pressure being exerted?5 on them by the guide members.

5. In a machine-for arranging substantially rectangular articles in rows, a hopper, a belt passing under the hopper, means for arranging the articles in parallel rows on the belt, and a plurality of polygonal rotating disks projecting among the articles in the hopper and positioned to contact with such articles on the belt asmay have their longest dimension vertical.

6. In a machine for arranging artlcles 1n stack formation, a descending chute having a plurality of article channels, a member having an arcuate slot divided by partitions to form a plurality of arcuate channels aligned with the channels in the chute, a plurality of curved fingers mountedfor oscillation in the arcuate channels,'and means for removing a stack of articles from said fingers.

7. In a machine for feeding substantially rectangular articles, a descending chute conveying the articles by gravity with their long dimension extending in a generally vertical direction, amember movable across the end of the chute in an arc concave towards the chute to elevate the articles successively above the end of the chute and simultaneously to turn them with their long dimension horizontal, and means for moving the articles endon from said member in a horizontal direction.

8. Ina machine for feeding rows of gen erally'rectangular articles, a hopper to receive the articles in indiscriminate arrangement, a plurality of guideways flanking each other within the hopper for arranging the articles on edge in rows, mechanism for moving the articles-on edge alon said guideways and arranging them with t eir long dimensions extending in a substantially horizontal direction, a descending chute provided with a plurality of guideways flanking each articles on edge in rows, mechanism for moving the articlesvon edge along said guideways and arranging them with their long dimensions extending in a substantially horizontal 5 direction, a descending chute provided with a plurality of converging guidewa s for recelving the rows of articles on e ge as removed from the hopper and conveying them downwardly still on edge-with their long dimensions extending in a generally vertical direction, mechanism for removing the low-- ermost stack of articles from the converging guideways, elevating the stack above the lower ends of the guideways, and turning the articles so that their long dimensions are again horizontal, and means for removing the articles horizontally from said mechanism. v

In testimony whereof we have aflixed our signatures.

ELMER .L. SMITH, PAUL LANGHAMMER. STEPHEN BODOLAY. 

